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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
U.S.-IRAQ DEVELOPMENTS
At least five U.S. personnel were injured in a suspected rocket attack yesterday against U.S. and coalition forces at Al-Asad Airbase in Iraq, a U.S. defense official said. “Base personnel are conducting a post-attack damage assessment,” the official said. The U.S. Defense Department has blamed Iran-aligned militia groups for the attack, calling it a “dangerous escalation.” Hayley Britzky reports for CNN; Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart report for Reuters.
A Yemeni drone specialist who had traveled to Iraq to train other Iranian-backed fighters was among those killed in a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad last week, officials said. The July 30 airstrike in Musayib, a town south of Iraq’s capital, targeted militants preparing to launch an attack on U.S. forces, according to officials. Alex Horton and Mustafa Salim report for the Washington Post.
ISRAEL-IRAN CONFLICT
President Biden met his senior national security team yesterday as concerns rise of a possible Iranian retaliatory attack on Israel. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were told by their national security team that it is still unclear when Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah are likely to attack Israel and what specifically the attack might entail, officials said. Christy Cooney reports for BBC News; Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
A top Russian security official arrived in Tehran yesterday to meet with senior officials. Iranian media reported that Iran has requested advanced air-defense systems from Russia as it prepares for a possible war with Israel. Two Iranian officials confirmed that Iran has made the request and said Russia has started delivering advanced radars and air-defense equipment. Farnaz Fassihi reports for the New York Times.
ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH CONFLICT
Lebanon’s Hezbollah today launched a swarm of drone and rocket attacks into northern Israel, but warned that its retaliation for Israel’s killing of a top commander last week was yet to come. The Israeli military said several civilians were injured in Nahariya. Separately, the IDF today confirmed it struck what it said was a building used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, killing four people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Reuters reports; The Times of Israel reports.
The IDF yesterday confirmed it killed another Hezbollah commander in a strike on Lebanon. Hezbollah also confirmed the commander’s death. ABC News reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Nine staff members at the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, may have been involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the U.N. has said. The U.N. had completed an investigation following Israeli allegations that UNRWA staff were involved, according to a U.N. deputy spokesperson, who added that all nine would have their employment terminated. Pia Harold reports for BBC News.
Israel has returned the bodies of 89 Palestinians killed in its military offensive in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry said yesterday. The Hamas-run Gaza government media office also said Israeli forces had “stolen” 2,000 bodies since Oct. 7 from cemeteries. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes killed at least 18 people yesterday, including Gaza’s deputy economic minister, according to the health ministry. Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Hatem Khaled reports for Reuters.
The sexual abuse investigation that has rocked Israel’s military broke after doctors reported injuries to a Palestinian detainee that were so severe they required surgery, sources say. Court hearings began last week to determine whether any of the 10 reservists initially detained by the military in a raid at the Sde Teiman detention center should face charges. Anat Peled, Fatima Abdulkarim, and Omar Abdel-Baqui report for the Wall Street Journal.
Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli detention facilities since Oct. 7 “have been subjected to inhumane conditions and abuse that amount to systematic torture,” B’Tselem, an Israeli rights monitor, said in a new report.
At least four Palestinians were killed and seven others injured by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank today, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Two of the injured were in critical condition. Reuters reports.
Ten ultra-Orthodox men protesting their conscription were arrested yesterday outside an army recruitment office near Tel Aviv, the police said, after “hundreds of protesters” arrived “with the aim of breaking into the military base.” The New York Times reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — REGIONAL RESPONSE
Jordan’s King Abdullah warned Biden in a phone call yesterday of “hostile acts” in Jerusalem. “Extremist settler violence against Palestinians, as well as unilateral Israeli measures” threaten the status quo of Jerusalem’s holy sites and “may fuel violence in the region,” Abdullah said. Reuters reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
Meta Platforms apologized today for its “operational error” in removing Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s social media posts expressing condolences to a Hamas official about Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination. The Guardian reports.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
A Virginia man has been charged with making numerous death threats against Vice President Harris. Frank Lucio Carillo, 66, posted a series of violent threats about Harris on the conservative social media site GETTR, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday. Carillo is being detained pending a court hearing scheduled for Thursday. Dareh Gregorian and Zoë Richards report for NBC News; Jacob Knutson reports for Axios.
Google is an illegal monopoly and has abused its market power to quash competition in internet search, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled yesterday. The ruling hands the Justice Department its biggest victory in over two decades in “limiting the power of Big Tech companies to control and dominate the huge markets they have created.” Eva Dou and Gerrit De Vynck report for the Washington Post.
Five secretaries of state plan to send Elon Musk an open letter urging him to immediately fix X’s AI chatbot Grok, after it shared misinformation with millions of users suggesting that Harris was not eligible to appear on the 2024 presidential ballot. Sarah Ellison and Amy Gardner report for the Washington Post.
The office of Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced yesterday that Jenna Ellis, former President Trump’s ex-attorney and one of the 18 defendants in the Arizona “fake electors” case, is cooperating with the prosecution. Ellis signed the cooperation agreement yesterday, according to the announcement, which said prosecutors are dropping the charges against her. Alex Tabet and Vaughn Hillyard report for NBC News.
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
Bangladesh’s parliament has been dissolved, according to a statement from the president’s office, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country. It had been a key demand made by student protest coordinators, who have said they will not accept a military-led government, and that Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus has agreed to be the interim government’s chief adviser. BBC News reports.
A Polish man will stand trial in Denmark today over an attack on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in central Copenhagen in early June, facing charges of assaulting a public official. Isabelle Yr Carlsson reports for Reuters.
Venezuela’s top prosecutor yesterday announced a criminal investigation against the opposition’s presidential candidate Edmundo González and its leader Maria Corina Machado, over their “call on the armed forces to abandon their support for President Nicolás Maduro and to stop repressing demonstrators.” Regina Garcia Cano and Joshua Goodman report for AP News.
The U.S. military handed over control of its last base in Niger to local forces yesterday, ending a yearslong counterterrorism mission in the West African country even as violent extremism spreads in the Sahel. Eric Schmitt reports for the New York Times; Rachel Chason reports for the Washington Post.
A rebel army in Myanmar announced this weekend that it had claimed a regional military base, giving the resistance control of a city and airport on a crucial trade corridor to China. Vivek Shankar reports for the New York Times.
A Tunisian court has jailed several potential presidential election candidates and banned them from running for office, according to sources, a move that critics say is aimed at preventing serious competitors to President Kais Saied in October’s election. The Guardian reports.
A Mexican journalist who reported on violent crime has been killed while under police protection. Unknown gunmen shot Alejandro Martínez as he was traveling in a car with two security guards in Guanajuato. Gianluca Avagnina and Leanoardo Rocha report for BBC News.
TRUMP LEGAL MATTERS
The Supreme Court yesterday rejected a lawsuit by Missouri that asked the justices to intervene in Trump’s New York criminal hush money trial. The Missouri’s attorney general had asked the court to postpone Trump’s sentencing, scheduled for Sept. 18, until after the election and to lift his gag order. Adam Liptak reports for the New York Times.